Soapbox: I Spent 3 Days with the Concord Trophy Hunters Who Dedicated Their Lives to Unlocking the PS5, PC Platinum

This Trophy requires players to hit level 100, which isn’t too bad up until level 50, where the XP needed for each level slowly ramps up to 100,000 XP. But, after that, each level requires 100,000 XP on its own, which is approximately five million XP. With respawn playlists only awarding approximately 7,000 XP a game, a group of Trophy hunters have spent the last three days pulling everyone into the Rivalry playlist 24/7, thanks to a PSN message group. The group quickly realised that jumping off the map to end games as fast as possible would maximise XP gains.

I have spent the last three days in that group, following their every move and even helping them out at points in hopes of getting my own Concord Platinum trophy (spoilers: I gave up after less than a day).

But this article isn’t about me: it’s about this group of Trophy hunters and Concord players who named themselves The Concordians. A story about their unity and efficiency at grinding. But it’s also a diary of the last three days of Concord and how this group lived up to the very definition of what a concord is: a harmony between people.

Day 1: Rally the Troops

A few hours after the announcement from Firewalk, random players started jumping into Rivalry, but one PSN user called ‘the_sultan999’ decided to open up a boosting session on PSN Profiles to try and attract players to grind with them. They also opened up a PSN group chat to organise things and allow everyone who wanted the Platinum Trophy to message each other in a centralised location and group up in squads of five.

I learned about this group around four hours after Firewalk’s announcement and decided to hop in with hopes of earning the Platinum Trophy myself. Upon first joining, the entire group was already running rather efficiently, with two main five-man squads jumping into Rivalry, jumping off the map for four rounds to lose the game, and repeating this cycle.

Before long, there were 20 members, with ‘the_sultan999’ adding more people each hour until the number grew to more than 50 members about 12 hours after Firewalk’s announcement.

During these early hours of the grind, the pace of getting into matches and levelling up was rapid. At peak efficiency, you were able to earn about 150,000 XP (1.5 levels) each hour across 10 games of Rivalry, each lasting about 6-7 minutes. But this required no queue times and everyone to jump off the map as quickly as possible.

This wasn’t always easy, as some maps like Freewater don’t have low walls by the spawn, requiring you to run about 10-15 seconds to the side of the map and hop on some crates to jump out of bounds. On average, most players in the group were earning 100,000 XP an hour, or gaining a level an hour.

Optimism was strong. Everyone was cheering on others to join in and grind for the Platinum Trophy no matter what level they were at. “It’s possible,” several members said, although in reality some players that were a part of the group were below level 30, and unless they pulled all-nighters for the next three days in a row and never left their PS5, the chances of them reaching level 100 were next to impossible. The vast majority of players sat between levels 40 and 60.

As I spent hours playing with people in this group, we all started to chat about the shutdown announcement to keep busy as we jumped off the map. Almost everyone expressed a significant amount of frustration at how sudden the shutdown was.

“They could have given us a week,” several players exclaimed as they faced the prospect of doing this for days on end. Some committed to skipping work, calling in sick, and forgoing commitments in order to earn the Concord Platinum in case the game never comes back and it becomes unattainable. A few players even started completing other tasks while streaming Concord via Remote Play or playing on the PS Portal, picking up the device briefly to jump off the map and putting it down again.

A hopeful cry for 2x, or even 20x, boosted XP gains from Firewalk in the final days was echoed throughout the group. However, this was mostly delusional optimism. There was no way Firewalk was going to enable boosters to boost more efficiently and effectively break matchmaking for the few regular players playing the Rivalry playlist.

As 12 or so hours passed, the group learned the time of the server shutdown would be 10AM on 6th September. This allowed everyone in the group to work out a rough estimate of how many hours they needed to play over the next few days to earn the Platinum if they were getting 100,000 XP an hour. For some players in the group, it was 30 or so hours. For others, it was 50 or more hours they needed to play, and there were only 60 or so hours left before the servers shut down.

I had about 48 hours of grinding left over the next two and a half days. Faced with that prospect, I decided to call it quits on my hunt for Concord’s Platinum trophy, but I stuck around in the group to see if they could maintain their momentum.

Day 2: Jubilation and Fatigue

For the majority of the second day of grinding, efficiency remained smooth, although some players wanted sleep and decided to start AFK lobbies. These took the form of teams grouping up and the leader using a Turbo controller or a Clicker app via Remote Play to requeue by constantly pressing the square button. However, disconnects and some other small issues slowed this entire process down, and the success rate of these AFK lobbies varied.

By this point, the group number had ballooned to 90 members from across the world, all gunning for the Platinum or helping out others.

At this point, some players were starting to get close to achieving the coveted rank of 100. A couple had been up for more than 24 hours grinding this method, and one player in particular, ‘Red’, was now incredibly close to rank 100 after starting at rank 55 when Firewalk announced the server shutdown.

‘Red’ had spent around 32 hours straight grinding almost nonstop, they said. 28 matches remained, around three hours or so. Over those three hours, anticipation kicked in with them getting to just a few games left, then level 99, and then before we knew it, Red had their Platinum Trophy.

The entire group erupted in congratulations messages and hearts for ‘Red’ who then took some well-deserved rest. I was amazed at the support everyone still had for each other this deep into an outrageously taxing grind and how everyone was still banding together and helping each other.

A few more people over the next few hours hit level 100, and support remained strong. But the intensity of this grind and the length of time some of these players had been up for were starting to get to them.

Before long, people were struggling, the energy of the group tanked, and matchmaking was becoming slower as regular players stopped investing in a game that they wouldn’t be able to play soon. A handful of people dropped out of the grind too, as they calculated it would be impossible for them to reach level 100.

This brought the entire efficiency of the method to a halt somewhat. Although matches were still being found, the group were suddenly taking longer to level up, and it became clear as the final 24 hours loomed that only those at level 80 and above had an relatively easy ride to the Platinum.

Day 3: Every End Is a Beginning

As the group entered the final day of the game’s life for now (potentially forever), the weariness remained, but so did the dedication.

More people hit level 100, and despite everything they put into their own grind, stuck around to continue letting matches flow quickly and help others. Some took time to sleep and returned to help, and others were happy to see the back of the game after doing nothing else for days on end.

Those hitting level 100 shared how thankful they were to everyone who banded together to help fellow Concord players and Trophy hunters achieve this feat.

One user shared this message upon finally earning the Platinum Trophy:

“Good night guys. I have to say two days ago, when I heard about the news, I did not believe I would ever get the Platinum for this game. But then I read about people committing sui[cide off the map] to get to level 100. [At] first I ignored it, but then I started doing it too, and thanks to all of you, I can actually look at a pretty 100% [Trophy list].

Alongside these moments of gratefulness, the game also started to break more and more. It felt as though as the servers weren’t being watched as closely by Firewalk due to the imminent shutdown, the game was falling apart. Black screens, disconnects, UI elements appearing in menus and loading screens, people being unable to move, visual glitches like XP not updating from a match in a lobby were all popping up more and more.

But the group pushed on, and as the hours went by, player after player hit level 100 and earned the Platinum Trophy. A large chunk of these players had been here for almost three days straight, chugging Red Bulls, calling in sick to work or school, and some even had friends and family helping them out.

One player got their sibling to hop on for a few hours while they took a nap. Another did the same thing with their twin. Players were having their girlfriends and partners assist them in jumping off the map to ensure there wasn’t a single wasted moment while they completed errands or fed their pets.

It was incredible to observe this kind of commitment and harmony between not only players but also their friends and family who were helping them. While not everyone made it to level 100 in this group, a lot of people did thanks to teamwork and an impressive level of commitment.

Those that were successful thanked others and made new friends, excited about jumping on to the next multiplayer game to play together. Some even discussed other Platinum Trophies they wanted to earn by grouping together. Those that didn’t hit level 100 tried their best and still had hope the game could come back online some day so they could finish the job.

Concord has been a failure in almost every way, but it did give birth to an experience all of these players ‘The Concordians’ will remember for the rest of their lives.

This team, this grind was an insane experience to observe. But with the game’s servers shuttered, these last few days reminded me what is possible when a gaming community, players, and people become a concord to achieve a shared goal. Concord may not live on, but this story about the game will.